Once Upon A Time – April 5 – 1879 – Chile Declares War On Bolivia And Peru

1242 Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod defeats Teutonic Knights in the Battle of the Ice

1614 Indian Princess Pocahontas, a convert to Christianity, marries English colonist John Rolfe.

1722 Dutch navigator Jacob Roggeveen is the first European to discover Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the southeastern Pacific

1818 In the Battle of Maipú, Chile’s independence movement – led by Bernardo O’Higgins and José de San Martín – win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead.

1835 Rama Varma, son of a Rajah, is baptized in India despite strong Hindu opposition.

1847 Birkenhead Park, the first civic public park, opens in Birkenhead, England, designed by Joseph Paxton

1879 Chile declares war on Bolivia and Peru, starting the War of the Pacific.

Historical Events Today

Today In Film & TV

1987 Fox TV network premieres showing “Married With Children” and “The Tracey Ullman Show”

Today In Music

1874 Johann Strauss Jr’s opera “Die Fledermaus” premieres in Vienna

Today In Sport

1984 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar breaks Wilt Chamberlain’s all-time career scoring record of 31,419 points (31,421)

Do You Know This Fact About Today

1923 Firestone Tire and Rubber Company starts producing inflatable tires

Would You Believe This Fact About Today?

1943 Chinese steward Poon Lim is found off the coast of Brazil by a Brazilian fisherman family after being adrift 133 days, after British ship SS Benlomond torpedoed by German U-boat